Carbon M2 3D printer

The Carbon M2 machine.

California-based 3D printing company, Carbon has announced the first closing in a $200 million in Series D funding round set to facilitate its global expansion and “double down” on its commitment to move to real-world, mass 3D manufacturing.

“The age of digital 3D Manufacturing is here, and this funding – with this incredible group of global financial investors, customers, and partners – validates our vision to fundamentally change how the world designs, engineers, makes and delivers products,” said Dr. Joseph DeSimone, Carbon’s CEO and co-founder. “We are especially gratified that our mission and values came through as such strong criterion for this group. Since Carbon first introduced digital light synthesis, we have continuously pushed the boundaries and transformed industries, and are uniquely positioned to take digital manufacturing to an entirely new level.”

Carbon’s pioneering Digital Light Synthesis enabled by its proprietary CLIP technology was recently utilised in collaboration with adidas on the production of its Futurecraft 4D shoe. By 2018, 100,000 pairs will be produced, making it one of the highest volume production applications for 3D printing to date. With this new funding, Carbon says it will be able to realise a new class of workers and business models to make new and personalised products powered by cloud computing.

“We are delighted to be investing in Carbon on behalf of our clients,” said Peter Singlehurst, Investment Manager at Baillie Gifford. “Through a combination of faster production times, lower costs, and a wider range of materials, Carbon is delivering on the long standing but elusive promise of 3D manufacturing at scale. Coupled with an innovative business model and a first-class team, we believe that Carbon has the makings of a large, valuable, and important business.”

Carbon has recently extended its presence in the UK and Europe in partnership with new production partners Citim, a member of the Oerlikon Group, Oechsler in Germany, and Fast Radius and Paragon in the UK. Now, with this latest funding round, the company plans to expand even further, including the Asia Pacific region.

“We have been impressed by the technology and team at Carbon, and have been helping them build bridges into Japan,” said Nobu Koshiba, President of JSR Corporation. “We believe Carbon’s digital light synthesis technology will play a crucial role in transforming manufacturing in multiple industrial sectors, especially in Japan and the Asia Pacific region more generally. We are looking forward to continuing this momentum together.”